title: Intraflagellar transport: a new player at the immune synapse.
abstract: The assembly and maintenance of primary cilia, which orchestrate signaling pathways centrally implicated in cell proliferation, differentiation and migration, are ensured by multimeric protein particles in a process known as intraflagellar transport (IFT). It has recently been demonstrated that a number of IFT components are expressed in hematopoietic cells, which have no cilia. Here, we summarize data for an unexpected role of IFT proteins in immune synapse assembly and intracellular membrane trafficking in T lymphocytes, and discuss the hypothesis that the immune synapse could represent the functional homolog of the primary cilium in these cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Finetti
authors.forename: Silvia Rossi
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Paccani
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rosenbaum
authors.forename: Cosima T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Baldari
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D005407:Flagella / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D054992:Immunological Synapses / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism